


Thank You

by elaranova



Category: Until Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, a lot of fluff, and heartache lol, mention of beth washington, mention of hannah washington, pre-mountain until dawn, until dawn hc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-28
Updated: 2017-05-28
Packaged: 2018-11-06 00:29:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11024772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elaranova/pseuds/elaranova
Summary: When Josh and Sam feel like they can't trust anyone else, they look to each other for comfort and support.





	Thank You

The clock read 1 AM. Sam wasn’t sleeping. Sure, she was tired, but she learned months ago that it wasn’t that simple anymore. She couldn’t just lay down after a long day and fall asleep. Whenever she closed her eyes for too long, her thoughts would start to wonder into corridors of her mind that she’d purposely locked away the night Hannah and Beth went missing. 

At this point, she was used to not getting much sleep and having to keep herself entertained at night until her body became exhausted. However, tonight was particularly rough. The music on her iPod kept coming up emotional and anything she tried to do to occupy her thoughts always lead back to the ones she was trying to avoid. 

Knock, knock, knock.

She welcomed the distraction and lifted her head towards the sound. It wasn’t coming from her door, but from the window instead. Not long after the knock came the sound of the window sliding open and a tall, dark-haired boy climbed inside– Josh. 

“You didn’t want to check that I was actually home first?” She shut her laptop and set it on her nightstand, sitting forward a bit.

“And where would you be, exactly?” Josh teased, slipping his shoes off and leaving them under the windowsill. 

“Hey!” She said softly, tossing a pillow gently in his direction, “I do things.”

“Things that require you to be out at 1 AM?” He raised a brow at her. She didn’t say anything, only giving him a huff in response. He chuckled and sat down towards the end of her bed. The two of them sat in silence for a few minutes. 

In the dim glow of her fairy lights she could see that he was dressed in grey sweatpants and an old t-shirt. His hair was a mess and his eyes looked red. He might have been crying, she couldn’t be sure. He looked just about as terrible on the outside as she felt on the inside.

“So,” Sam was the first to break the silence, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear as she did, “Tonight isn’t so great for you either then?” 

He didn’t say anything for a bit. Then, he shook his head.

“You wanna talk about it?” 

He shrugged. 

She pursed her lips together in thought. Then, she moved over to one side of her bed and gently patted the empty spot next to her. Josh moved silently to sit beside her. He didn’t bother to leave space between them, sitting with their arms and legs touching. 

Another silence settled over them. She could tell he was working up the energy to say something. 

“I just–,” He started before stopping abruptly. Sam heard him swallow loudly. She looped her arm in his and took his hand, linking their fingers together. She held his hand in both of hers, resting them in her lap. 

“I know,” She whispered. He rested his head on her shoulder. 

They’d had the conversation many times before. He missed his sisters, and so did she. She wished that things had happened differently, and so did he. He felt like there was something he could have done to stop it all, and so did she. They both knew there were things they could have done, but failed at doing. 

Sometimes the conversation was more angry– towards themselves or towards their other friends. Sometimes the conversation was reminiscent of the good times. Sometimes the conversation teetered on the line of delusional, if they let themselves think for a few seconds that somehow the girls had survived all this time and would one day come back home. 

And then sometimes the conversation was just filled with a lot of sadness. Sometimes Josh cried– Sam only had once, but it had been a lot– and they just hugged or held hands and did anything they could to help each other hold onto their sanity. 

“I feel like there’s nothing new I can say but I just–,” He let out a sigh and she thought he might start crying, which was okay. His father was never the type to encourage Josh to express his emotions, even after the disappearance of his Hannah and Beth. Sam wanted Josh to feel like he had a place to actually express himself and cry, if he needed to do that. 

“Are you still seeing your therapist?” Sam asked softly. 

Josh didn’t respond for a moment, as if he wasn’t sure what the answer was. 

“Josh?” She gave his hand a gentle squeeze. 

“I um,” He nodded, “Yeah.. Yeah, I am.” 

“That’s good.. Do you think it’s helping?” 

It took a bit for him to respond again and she started to feel a bit concerned. 

“Yeah I– Well, um–” He shifted on the bed, “Maybe.. I don’t know.. Maybe not..” She turned her head so that she could see him as best as she could. 

“If it’s not helping, you don’t have to go, you know? You can find someone new that might work better for you,” Sam refused to let her own parents get her a therapist for herself, but she’d been very enthusiastic about the idea of Josh getting one. If there was ever anything he didn’t want to talk to her about, she wanted to make sure he had someone he could share those things with, “What was his name again? Dr. Hill, right?”

He just nodded slowly, his eyes not quite connecting with her or the room in general anymore, “Yeah,” His nodding slowed to a stop. 

“Hey,” She shifted so that her body was facing him, “Look at me,” Sam put one of her hands on his cheek and turned his head so he was looking at her, “What’s going on in that head of yours?” Her eyes were soft and her voice was gentle. 

“It’s..” He sighed again, “It’s not that easy to explain,” His eyes scanned her face and then came back to make contact with her own again. 

It was her turn to sigh now. When she looked into his eyes she could see the pain and the sadness inside them. She was pretty sure the same look was mirrored in her own, although she tried to keep it hidden as best as she could. She tried to be strong. They both did. 

“I’m sorry..” He said. 

“No no,” She shook her head quickly, “It’s okay.. It’s okay,” Sam reassured him. Then, she tilted her head so that their foreheads were pressed together and let her eyes fall closed, “It’s okay.”

The two of them sat like that for a long time. They eventually tired of sitting up and, without much discussion, got under the covers together. Neither one of them ever really addressed their physical closeness out loud. Sam thought it might be better that way. Sometimes it felt like maybe there was more to it than just two close friends comforting each other in times of need. That made her a little nervous, so she liked that they never really talked about it. They just let it happen. 

Josh was so easily able to wrap his arms around her and pull her small form against his chest. Their legs would tangle together and sometimes she’d bury her face against the crook of his neck. They used their breathing to calm one another and, usually, after they’d gotten to the part of the night where they were this close, they didn’t talk much– or at all, really. 

Tonight was a little different, though. 

“Thank you,” Josh whispered, his voice almost inaudible. 

Sam nodded her head in response. 

“I mean it,” She heard him take a shaky breath in and let it out slowly, “I don’t know what I would… What I would do without you.” 

Sam pulled back and looked up at him. They both had tears in their eyes. She leaned in a bit and pressed a small and gentle kiss against his lips, because it felt like the right thing to do. Her heart was beating fast in her chest. 

“It’s okay,” She said for the hundredth time. She smiled at him, just a bit. 

For awhile they just lay there and looked at each other, neither one of them having anything to say. Nothing needed to be said. They talked enough about everything else and anything else that this was the one thing that just felt like it didn’t need to be discussed. 

After some time, their eyes got tired and Sam resorted back to burying her face against his chest. It was around 5 in the morning when they were finally falling asleep. The birds were chirping outside the window and dawn was starting to break. Sam’s parents could be heard stirring downstairs, getting ready to leave for work. 

The last thing she felt before officially giving into the feeling of exhaustion was a sweet, soft kiss on her forehead and Josh’s large hand rubbing gentle circles onto her back. She felt the most peaceful she had felt in a long time and for the first time in months, she didn’t have a single nightmare.


End file.
